Wow, that's a huge improvement for Android Market sales figures in general. Just 3 months ago a top 5 app was getting $64/day http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=796685 and now #14 in travel is getting as much as $156.

It's an improvement, although maybe not in the marketplace itself but in getting tons of free press coverage from winning the Google challenge.

Remember that "we will win a competition" does not make a good business strategy.

I suppose that could be the case, or maybe it's the fact that Verizon has sold nearly a million droids in the past month: http://gigaom.com/2009/11/30/droid-q4-sales/

Personally, I think it might be the latter.

Android Market sales were stagnant because very few people had Android phones. The floodgates are however opening and in this coming year I expect sales will grow tremendously when the dozens of new Android phones are launched.

I think the release of the Droid phone has had a significant hand in the sales increase. I've read accounts from other Android developers who didn't make it into the ADC final round who still saw significant sales jumps around the same time due to the Droid phone release.

Is it just me or does Google not promote these apps at all from within the Android Market itself? I'm looking for some menu option or banner that says "Check out these great apps", and am not seeing one.

It's not just you. This is probably my #1 complaint about the Android market that I have. Unlike iTunes, where you can search and browse the entire app store on your computer, with Android you can only browse for apps on your phone. There isn't even a Google website where you can browse for apps, as far as I know.

Yep, I actually wrote a post about that a few weeks ago http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/15/android-market-app-stor...

About 2/3 way through the post I talk about a model they could use where they push apps to you OTA, which could be cool. Hoping they're paying attention. I also think it's weird that they aren't promoting ADC winners at all from within the Market.

There is a list at the top level of the Market application. However, it doesn't change very often and it's not clear how one ends up on it in the first place.

Android Market sales will increase when they offer paid apps in more countries. I'm from Canada, and if I ever decide to get an Android device, I can't purchase apps from the market. What's up with that?

The standard in ADC2 is still a mix between the semi-professional and pro apps.

Eg, Speed Forge, which won one of the games awards, is a racing game that doesn't have a pause option. Visit the menu and you just lost the race. Totemo, on the other hand, also won an award, and is incredibly slick.

Hoccer is cool and innovative (throwing and catching data physically), Car Finder is, AFAICT, the inbuilt maps activity with a bookmark function.

I'd love to see the figures for the Totemos and Hoccers of the Android world rather than the Speed Forge and Car Finders.